The use of digital cameras is ubiquitous, and increasingly digital cameras are being integrated into mobile electronic devices such as PDA's, cell-phones and the like. However, the requirements on the quality of the photos tend to vary within each device. For example, a dedicated digital camera tends to be used in situations where high quality pictures are desired as the pictures can be printed, and even blown up, to be placed in family albums etc. However, digital cameras integrated into mobile electronic devices (including mobile communication devices) tend to be used in spontaneous social and/or work situations where the quality of the picture can be less important than been able to acquire the picture. The situation is exacerbated, as the memory of the mobile electronic device stores data other than pictures, such as e-mails, PIM data, download data, etc., the amount of memory available to store pictures can vary while the device is in operation. While ethnographic data suggests that users of these devices are generally willing to trade off picture quality for number of possible pictures, there will be an expectation of maintaining quality of pictures already acquired. Hence a general problem exists of how to manage the memory of an electronic device as it becomes fill, such that the maximum possible number of pictures can be acquired, while maintaining quality of images already acquired.